My 7 day driveaway cover with ford has almost expired so in the process of looking for car insurance. Should i specify the optional extras i got with the car (e.g. full dress up kit, upgraded alloys) even though they are factory fitted?

No. Car modifications are anything which has been fitted or altered after the factory build.

The person from Tesco insurance wanted to know the Optional Extra's I'd picked off the list, otherwise he said they wouldn't have the correct value of the car to cover it (ie: I wouldn't get all the money back if I didn't)

I did question it at the time because it contradicted what others had said...?

they describe it as follows: "Modifications are non-standard changes made to the car after manufacture, such as new spoilers, alloy wheels, exhaust pipes, changes to the engine capacity etc."

Therefor the body kit which comes on the Zetec S and optional for other models isn't a modification as it is added DURING manufacture, not after. To represent the price of the car, you just say how much the car is worth. Be careful though as the higher the cost of the car the more your inmsurance will be... You never get the full amount back from insurance companies anyway.

I would just tell them everything about your car and exactly what it has on it. If anything did happen, you'd want your money back not for them to turn round and say "Oh no you didnt actually say that when you took out the insurance" Or just say, its this standard spec but I have added the following optional extras and they were factory fitted.

I'm insured with Direct Line, just because they have done me a pretty good deal because I'm a young driver (19) However, they caused big problems when we first took out insurance on my Mk5. The car was "my mums" and I was the "named driver" which your no longer allowed to do with Direct Line because they found out so many people were doing it. On insuring my car, my Mum pointed out it had alloy wheels (It was the MK5 1.3 2001 Flight spec) and Direct Line swore blind I had fitted them myself, that they didnt come standard. It took us going down to Allen Ford and getting the original spec from the book and faxing it to DirectLine for them to believe us!

And Ford Insure.....I wasn't too impressed with mine. My Mum picked up her brand new Fusion 3 weeks before mine, she kept the Ford insure on, parked in a well known large supermarket, woman in a yaris smacked in the side of her, my Mum had to pay £600 excess, something Ford didnt tell her at the time. I changed mine over to my insurance as soon as I got home, because being 19 the excess is £850 ! And they had put my name down as Mrs Claire Lut. I'm not married, my name is Emily, and my surname does begin with an L, but it's not Lut!!!!

I'd declare what you've got...just to be on the safe side. It's not worth risking it with a brand new shiny car